Waseem Ahmad
SRINAGAR, Aug 4: The dental section of Sub-District Hospital at Uri in North Kashmir’s Baramulla District has been rendered dysfunctional due to lack of a surgeon, forcing patients to visit private clinics and hospitals for costly surgeries.
On Thursday a number of patients visiting the dental section were returned by the hospital as no surgeon was available to treat the patients. The hospital caters to nearly 43 villages having a population of around 76, 000.
The hospital sources said every day nearly 50-80 patients, who come for simple extractions, surgical extractions, fillings, RCTs (Root Canal Treatment) and scaling visit the unit. “Majority of the dental procedures requires 10-15 minutes but the lack of dental surgeon forces them to travel long distances for the treatment and that takes plenty of time,” he said.
The patients, who were waiting for their turn outside the dental section, rued that despite waiting for more than two hours they have to return without treatment. “I have to remove two of my teeth and am visiting the hospital for last one month. Last time they told me that the doctor will be available within two weeks. But, more than a month has passed but the doctor is nowhere,” Abdul Raham Khatana, a 60-year-old man said.
Since the dental surgeon of the unit was attached to District hospital Baramulla four months ago, the dental unit of the Government hospital is left with one assistant and a class-IV employee to manage the unit affairs.
Block Medical Officer, Mohammad Ramzan Mir, when contacted said if the doctors failed to join back the services they would take action. “He has been attached to District Hospital Baramulla. But, recently the Government has ordered to cancel all the attachments and all the doctors have been asked to join at the original place of posting. Some people have joined back and the people who fail to join back salaries will be stopped and action under rules will be taken,” he said.
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